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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27846534">Solitude</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Isaya/pseuds/Isaya'>Isaya</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Advent Calender 2020 [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Elder Scrolls, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 21:42:29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>665</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27846534</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Isaya/pseuds/Isaya</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>pre-DBreveal loner Dragonborn is very confused why the Jarls keep trying to make her a Thain.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Advent Calender 2020 [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2036623</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Solitude</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Day 2, and I am no less clueless on what I want to write. But I'm more awake than yesterday, so that's something xD </p>
<p>Don't own, don't profit etc.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Mina only went on missions or quests very sparsely, and only ever when an empty coin purse made it unavoidable. Adventuring and exploring lost tombs may make some decent money, but only if one made a habit of courting death.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Mina liked travelling. Being unmoored, unfettered – that was what she wanted out of life. It was not a particularly safe way of life, maybe, and held few certainties but it also left her <em>free</em><span>. She was not beholden to any Jarl, did not have to serve in any military or militia. She was free as a bird to travel where the wind took her. It left her feeling as if she was left adrift at sea some days but unlike most people the unknowns did not scare her, no, she quite like the feeling of not knowing what tomorrow would bring.</span></p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>It left life free of expectations. There was no pressure to achieve anything. No college mages to impress, no harvest that needed to be brought in </span>
  <em>yesterday</em>
  <span>, no guild to serve. If there were no expectations on her, there was no possibility of disappointment. Oh, she would rise to the occasion when there were expectations – when she needed to accept a quest for money. But she preferred to stay away from expectations as much as possible nonetheless. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>She did not even own a horse these days. She had dreaded her old mare ageing and had been sure she would have to replace her in the next town... Only when it was finally the time of her sturdy steed, she was deep in the wilderness and it took her two weeks to return to some semblance of civilisation. She always travelled light as she had few possessions and the mare had been more for speed than a sumpter. By the time she hit the nearest village she was quite sure she would do just fine without another animal companion to feed and care for. (And she was surprisingly reluctant to replace an old friend.)</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>She loved the solitude of travelling alone and despised any paid adventures accompanying someone. Guarding someone was even worse. Those people were often times slow and needy and had no place in the wilderness. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>If she could manage, she would spend months on her own, scavenging the wilderness and would only rarely venture into a village or an inn to restock necessary supplies. It was only during the deepest, harshest days of winter that she stayed in an inn for more than a night at a time – outside of escort missions, naturally. If one knew enough, it was not too difficult to fashion a decent shelter in winter... A proper, enduring shelter took some time but she had learned to read the weather. She would not have survived for so many years on her own otherwise.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>So yes, Mina liked travelling, loved to be in solitude in tune with herself and nature and she had thought her visits to any villages or towns were rare enough that no one would pay her any attention... So why, exactly, was it that lately those crazy Jarls had the tendency to suddenly proclaim her Thain and assign her a House Carl to be collected from the Jarl's halls at her leisure. She did not even own a house! </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>The first time it happened she had assumed the man drunk and high-tailed it out of there. The second time she had felt shivers down her spine but tried to put it out of her mind. The third time just left her with a sense of impending doom … And now, the fourth... <br/>As soon as the word “Thain” had left the Jarl's mouth she'd given up on any sense of propriety. She straight up turned around and </span>
  <em>fled</em>
  <span>. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She loved to be unfettered herself. She did not wish any fettered to her. She did not with to be beholden to them in turn. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>She refused any and all missions for any of the Jarls after that.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Again, not edited, not beta-ed.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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